Bought my first Disco yesterday... today I striped the back end, guess what?

Hi all,

posted in the newbie section and now I'm here!

Yesterday I've bought my first Disco!
It's a 93 200Tdi with 2" lift, new insa turbo tyres, diff guards, disloc cones, steering guard, rock sliders, snorkel, bucket seats, heavy duty bumper.. ho well, you'll see the pics below!

So today when I got home from work I decided to inspect the boot, due to the known problem of it rotting.. and to my amazement there isnt much rust on the actual boot floor, but the inner wheel arches have holes, so the mud comes through...
when I lifted the carpet it was a real mess, think the previous owner never lifted the carpets...

So... i was wondering if there's a way of fixing the holes? or is it really a case of a complete replacement?
Also.. is there something I can put on the rust on the boot corners? there's no holes, but just to prevent it from rusting more...

here's some pics..

The disco..


the boot when I started..


after cleaning the mud on the left side (the mud comes through the little box near the seat belt


right side before cleaning... loads of mud!


and the hole on the left side, the right side is not as bad...


and how it is now.. the actual floor seems ok, so maybe it has been put new at some point? but then fitting the foam bit again??probably not...not sure..


by the way, excellent common faults sub forum, have just spent over 1h reading some posts!

Thanks in advance for any advice, tips, etc on the above..

JP

the little holes near the seat belt look likeb the holes for the rear seat bolts
find an appropriate size nut and bolt and fill the holes weld the rust hole

and paint the hole thing in rust remedy type stuff

I'm sure someone handy with a welder will patch that up no problem.

Do you mind me asking how much you paid?

KURUST for the rust prevention and then paint with a zinc based primer or even carbody underseal /shutz type stuff

That looks very nice. Did it set you back much more than a standard one? Those add ons are worth £loads.

Hello,

Have one of these myself but never been used off road so me and the fella are kitting it up as we go along.

The one thing I will say about the rust at the rear wheel arches is get your head underneath the arches and look and tap at the body there. It is one of the most common places for rust on Discos and honestly, one of the first places you should inspect when you're looking at buying one.

The problem with Disco 1's (not sure about 2's) is that the rear seatbelt mount is very close to where you most commonly get these rust patches and holes. Bevause of that, you can have an MOT failure on your hands if your not careful.

Best thing to do is find someone in your local area that works on Landy's and who can weld. Looking at the pictures, you need to have all the rust stripped back and kurusted, welding any holes or cracks.

What I can't do is feel the rust. When you are looking under the arch, you will be able to see where the rear seatbelt mount is, so poke the handle end of a screwdriver round there with decent pressure. If it needs a total reweld.....you'll know because the handle will just go straight through. If it doesn't, you can just strip it back, kurust it and paint it over.

When we bought our disco, we looked at another '98 which the huy said had been rewelded in the rear arches, treated and painted, but it looked a bit bubbled to us, so....poked it with my finger and sure enough, my finger went right through, leaving a nice hole. The guy wanted to get funny with me, but as I pointed out, he was obviously a lying b'tard and so didn't have a leg to stand on.


Great looking disco though and prob worth whatever you paid for it with all the extras. We just bought Insa Turbo Traction Tracks....good looking tyres aren't they!!!

Nice looking disco you got there mate , but spend as much time as you can getting at all the rusty bits sorted , but Dont just plaster it with underseal straight onto bare metal as it will just peel off later in life , prime it first .
spend loads of time on it now and you wont have to worry about it so much in the future .

Cant really give any advice on the holey bits,but it looks like a nice motor,plenty of kit

Ho my! so much to reply to..
lol

st3v3_c said:

I'm sure someone handy with a welder will patch that up no problem.

Do you mind me asking how much you paid?

Click to expand...

Not at all, I've paid 1700, thought it was a nice price considering all the extras it has?
I thought about buying a bog standard one, but then working out how much everything cost, i would have ended up spending more.. (I think)

redhand said:

KURUST for the rust prevention and then paint with a zinc based primer or even carbody underseal /shutz type stuff

Click to expand...

Thanks for that, will look out for that stuff online!
Before applying the KURUST, I assume I have to scrub as much rust as I can and then apply that stuff?
On the bikes I use something called ACF50, is used in aviation to prevent rust, and I spray my commuter bike with it before winter and never wash her, rust just doesnt happear and also gets rid of existing rust (surface)

Brian S said:

That looks very nice. Did it set you back much more than a standard one? Those add ons are worth £loads.

Click to expand...

Replied above

gruntygiggles said:

Hello,

The problem with Disco 1's (not sure about 2's) is that the rear seatbelt mount is very close to where you most commonly get these rust patches and holes. Bevause of that, you can have an MOT failure on your hands if your not careful.

What I can't do is feel the rust. When you are looking under the arch, you will be able to see where the rear seatbelt mount is, so poke the handle end of a screwdriver round there with decent pressure. If it needs a total reweld.....you'll know because the handle will just go straight through. If it doesn't, you can just strip it back, kurust it and paint it over.


Great looking disco though and prob worth whatever you paid for it with all the extras. We just bought Insa Turbo Traction Tracks....good looking tyres aren't they!!!

Click to expand...

Oooo.. didnt know about that on the MOT... but it came with 12 months MOT, so will have plenty of time to sort it out.
But let me see if I can explain.. if you look at the wheel arch and imagine that it starts at 9oclock position and finish at 3oclock, the hole for the seat belt is roughly at 10 and the holes are at 12... so might be alright (hopefully!!)

sypher said:

Nice looking disco you got there mate , but spend as much time as you can getting at all the rusty bits sorted , but Dont just plaster it with underseal straight onto bare metal as it will just peel off later in life , prime it first .
spend loads of time on it now and you wont have to worry about it so much in the future .

Click to expand...

Yeh, that's my intention, I've only bought it Monday and yesterday I already started stripping, just to make sure everything was ok..or not (as its the case) so for now I'm going to put gaffa tape to stop the water going up, but as soon as I can find someone that can weld and close to me, I'll get it repaired.
Just want it to be all ok and sorted so I can have some fun without worrying too much.



Thanks for all the comments!
JP

Went to a body repair place in Newbury today,
guy there looked at the wheel arches and he as quoted me :

£100 quid each side to do a patch job..

or £200 each side to do a proper job, cut a square where all the rust is and place new sheet of metal there, said it would last for years...

what do you guys think of the price?

cheers!
JP

i think thats exspensive

I've been quoted £50 a side to do mine

I say he is taking the ****! Have a look in the yellow pages and ring em up for some quote

cool, just the kind of feedback I was after! thanks...
will get more quotes....
Can anyone recommend a place near Berkshire?

Today i kept taking bits, the whole back end is completly striped.. and I've figured out (probably everyone knows this) what caused all that rust..
the water comes through the windows on the top, runs through the pilar, sits there and rusts....
The seat belt fixing points are solid, just rusted around the pilar...
the problem I have is that anything I buy (mainly motorbikes) I strip it down completly and then find all kinds of problems.. but hey, its all fun and games, quite enjoying working on my disco, shame I dont have a MIG or I would do the work myself and learn to weld..

here's the completly striped back end as you can see, the rust hole is around the box where the pilar meets the wheel arch..


and final pic of the day..cleaned and nothin on the back

Safari Engineering in Eversley is recomended.

Thanks for that, is that Eversley on the A327? that runs from Reading to the M3?
will give them a call and send some pics, see what they can do..

JP

Feck that.why give it to some coonutty twonk mechainc.You got this far fine GO OUT AND SPEND £300 ON A WELDER. that way when you need it again next year you can get on with it

hehehe, I've actually thought about that, not actually buying one, but I think I can borrow one, just need to buy all the bits to use for my own welding...
and has you say, it's likely I will be using it somewhere else..

thing is.. I dont even have a clue where or what kind of metal to buy! and have never welded stuff like this....won't even know where to start! lol

go spend £300 quid on welder and kit.You ought to be able to get a fair power for that money and gloves etc.Get a mig with gas.That will do it and go auto store/factors and buy some sheet.Tack n tap till ya hearts content

Beast o Bodmin said:

Feck that.why give it to some coonutty twonk mechainc.You got this far fine GO OUT AND SPEND £300 ON A WELDER. that way when you need it again next year you can get on with it

Click to expand...

Beast o Bodmin said:

go spend £300 quid on welder and kit.You ought to be able to get a fair power for that money and gloves etc.Get a mig with gas.That will do it and go auto store/factors and buy some sheet.Tack n tap till ya hearts content

Click to expand...

good advice its what im doing

looked at yer pics rust is within 300mm of seat belt mount so itd fail

best buy a welder and get weldin as yer will need to do more as time goes by

good luck